SKU: CF.FPS54F

ISBN 9780825861741. UPC: 798408061746. 9 X 12 inches.

Arranger Joseph Compello brings us a nice holiday collage that features the percussion section playing real street beats. Beside being an effective and fun arrangment, your percussion section will learn different roll-offs and streets that will be useful for parades or other events where street beats are needed. Well done Joe!

SKU: CN.R10177

Much of the thematic material for this lovely work by Holst is derived from the opening legato melodies provided by soli horns. The themes morph into several different dance feels throughout the remainder of the piece always keeping you guessing what will come next. Geoffrey Brand has done a masterful job of adapting the score for the modern concert band.

Holst's original version of 'The Morning of the Year' was written in 1926-27 as a choral ballet. It was the first work to be commissioned by the music department of the BBC. The first concert performance was on 17 March 1927 at the Royal Albert Hall, London conducted by the composer. In 1979 Colin Matthews and Imogen Holst edited this concert version with the approval of the publisher and G&I Holst Ltd. The chorus has been left out and several of the dances have been shortened. Some additional percussion was introduced to suggest the sounds the dancers would have provided in a stage performance. Geoffrey Brand arranged the work for concert band in 1995 with permission from G&I Holst Ltd.

SKU: CN.R10018

The melodies in Songs of the West differ in styles, keys, and tempos. The nautical nature of the coastal region is evident in many of the melodies.

Gustav Holst did not have much success in getting his early compositions published. In 1905, he began a career as a gifted teacher when he was appointed Director of Music at St. Paul's Girls School in Hammersmith. It was also a time when he developed the friendship of Ralph Vaughan Williams and the two developed an interest in English folk music. This became a turning point in Holst's style as he left behind the heaviness of the Wagnerian style for the simplicity of folk melodies. Vaughan Williams wrote 'we were dazzled, we wanted to preach a new gospel, we wanted to rhapsodise on these tunes just as Liszt and Grieg had done on theirs - we simply were fascinated by the tunes.' Enthusiastic archivist Cecil Sharp, of the Folk Song Society, encouraged Holst to write 'Two Selections of Folk Songs' based on material Sharp had collected in the West of England. Songs of the West was the first of the pair noted as Opus 22 was written in 1906; A Somerset Rhapsody was completed the following year. The melodies in Songs of the West differ in styles, keys, and tempos. The nautical nature of the coastal region is evident in many of the melodies. Originally written for orchestra, noted composer James Curnow was commissioned in 1986 to arrange the work for concert band.